Orbital cellulitis masquerading as cavernous sinus thrombosis--a case report.

Introduction In developing countries, Orbital Cellulitis is relatively a common pathology seen in ENT clinics and Emergency rooms. Frequency of Orbital Cellulitis is reported to be 21-90%.1 It is seen that 10 % of cases with orbital complication of sinusitis, will have partial or permanent loss of vision which may or may not resolve in 2-6 weeks.2 Another known feature of untreated orbital infection is Cavernous Sinus Thrombosis (CST). Due to modern diagnostic techniques and wide spread use of antibiotics , incidence of Cavernous Sinus Thrombosis is very low . In untreated cases of CST mortality is high. Despite aggressive medical management, complete recovery is rare. Roughly 1/6th of all patients are left with some degree of vision loss and half with cranial nerve deficits.3 This is specially true in under developed countries where patients present late and with full blown disease. Therefore , in our part of the world morbidity and mortality is even higher and disease being more lethal than what is reported in western literature.4